Driving ....continued

Its the 27th of January and  I have now been working on my drives for quite sometime. I thought I needed to scribble down the very critical points before I again typically forget the whole thing. As Akbar cited, I was working on my stance and posture. The prime thing which I am having difficult in comprehending is the distance to stand from the ball. Of course the earlier  lessons clearly advised me to bend down from the waist, spine straight and arms dangling. This will identify the position where my hands grip the Club. Spine straight- well sometimes I put the whole spine in an arch and this make a mess of my drives.

Ok now that I have my arms gripping the club and also have my spine bent at an angle. I start my drive-

• First the left hand should be straight and the right hand taking a 90 Deg angle as if slapping a person.
• The next step is to move the hips in line with the direction.
• Of course the head is straight down peering over the left shoulder, chin on the top of the shoulder.
• The swing starts down.
• Hips take over the swing.
• The shoulder and head are directly behind the ball and in line completely particularly when the club head strikes the ball.
• The head continues to be there until the strike is over and then only starts tracking the ball.
• Swing continues on.
• Left leg is completely taking the weight.
• The right leg is up and on the toes.

My newCoach

Sometimes i get a feeling that this game is jinxed for me. My first coach Joseph seems to have resigned accepting a new position at BGC. Lam  allotted me to Akbar whom I met on Friday 15 th January. I also had a session with Nikhil the Club Fitter who advised me against buying new Clubs but use the old one. He fitted two grips to my Spalding set for the Pitcher and the 8 Iron. Today I had my first session with Akbar, he looked at me and began coaching me.

Important Tips.

1) There are mainly five critical parts to the start Golf Game.
- First is the Grip
- Second is the Ball Position
-Third is the Stance
- Fourth is the Posture
- Fifth aim and alignment

2) Ball Position

This is when you are facing the ball. Put both your feet together and center the ball at the joint. Then spread your left leg and right leg equidistant to each other from the center. The distance should be shoulder length. This is maintained for drives with Iron, for the woods, it should be a wider stance and the ball towards the left leg. For putting the feet are almost together.

3) Bend the spinal cord forward stiffly from waist above (do not arch the spinal cord). Now dangle the hands down loosely.

4) Join them at the palms. This is the position of the Golf Clubs shaft. We grip the golf club here.

5)The shaft is leaned towards the left thigh. The mark on the golf club should be centered on the top which will open the blade of the Club Head.

6) Start the drive - towards the right. The left had is stiff and straight, the right hand is bent at the elbow and almost in a slapping position. If the Club is not there the thumbs must be facing up.

7) Drop the club accelerating down. The weight should be on the right leg.

8) When we strike the ball the body should be dead centre to the ball and face down.

9) Continue the motion, the right legs is lifted at the heel and swivelled

10 ) The left leg take the complete weight of the body

My second attempt.

On my last trip to Trivandrum, had made a completely out of schedule visit to Golf Club, totally unexpected with Pramod Chettan. On just exchanging conversations realised that they were looking for new Members and had permission to take in about 200 new members. I jumped in and threw in my application and a cheque immediately. In November I got a letter telling me that they have admitted me into the Club and this was for a period of six months after during which I would need to learn the game, buy a set of Clubs and have a round with a "Captain" (Goodness only know who that is) and have him certify me. Now I have to play the game and try to master it, if not for anything else but to save my investment.

I took a leisurely trip to Touche'. Collected the necessary details and now am just waiting for the right moment and the right time in other words, in other words trying to get out of the procrastination mode, I am presently in. This continued for a period of time and finally I decided to take the bull by the horn and on the 31st December morning, had me driving to Touche' again. Paid the Rs.26,000 and now am a member of Touche'club for the next 6 months. I better now catch up on my golf both theoretically as well as practically. I started to log into web sites and began reading up. I realized that Golfing Clubs was a science by itself, or at least that's what we are made to believe. Every club can be broken up into the Head, Shaft and the Grip. Every Golf bag can only have 14 golf clubs inside the same when you T off.

The Clubs primarily consists of  Drivers, Irons and Putters - of course now Hybrids have come into play. The Fairway shot or the second shot in every hole is an Iron. Closer to the Greens would be a higher numbered iron. The difference of these clubs are primarily the length and the "loft angle" maintained at the head. The main woods or Wood 1 has a Loft angle of 7 -12 Deg, this keep going up like the Wood 3 has a loft angle of 15-18 Deg and the Wood 5 has a loft angle of 20-22 Deg.

The day dawned brightly it was the second day of January and I decided to go to Touche' . Lam introduced me to Joseph who was a coach there. Joseph asked me to spend sometime putting and then he would take me to the Driving Range. There are a few pointers which Joseph gave which I will try to put it down here :-
1) The Grip : This has been detailed in my earlier Blog, so I am not repeating it. Strangely he did not give me much tips on the grip but concentrated on my strokes.
2) The stance should be wide and shoulder width. There should be balance in the stance. One way to se that is to take a stance and then hold out your hands in the front with both palms together. Play the stroke, you will notice with no weight the body is quite stable and both legs are anchored to the ground. This is what is required when the stroke is played.
3) He also advised to practice standing on the wooden log and maintaining balance with a wide stance.
4) The flow should be smooth, the left hand should be straight the right hand should move back and the wrist up with the Golf club. Now the turn should start from the hips and rotate.
5) Maintain balance and continue the flow till the Golf Club is over the left shoulder.
6) The club face should strike the ball underneath. So divot should be generated. To less means you are striking the top of the ball, too much means that you are way underneath the ball.
7) The face should be on the ball continuously until the ball is struck, only then should it be turned away.

I now continued this exercise for the balance of the buckets. Next day I was there again and used up two more buckets driving away. This practice I gather will work on the game.